Taiwan

Shui-bian agonistes

But the president should survive

CHEN SHUI-BIAN'S political fortunes have been at a low ebb for months. On June 13th, they took a turn for the worse as Taiwan's legislature started proceedings to recall him (ie, fire him as president of the country), amid allegations of corruption against members of his family and senior officials. He is most unlikely to lose his job, but for his remaining two years in office the president's authority could be seriously diminished.

China is watching warily. Normally eager to highlight Mr Chen's difficulties, official newspapers have said little about the attempts by the opposition in Taiwan to unseat him. Taiwan's raucous but democratic handling of corruption scandals is not an example that Chinese leaders are anxious to promote. Liu Zhihua, a deputy mayor of Beijing who was in charge of Olympics-related construction projects, was detained last week and dismissed for “corruption and degeneracy”. The official media have said virtually nothing about the charges.

No specific charges of wrongdoing have been laid against Mr Chen himself. But last month his son-in-law, Chao Chien-ming, was detained on suspicion of insider-trading. The president's wife, Wu Shu-chen, has been accused by the opposition of accepting gift certificates from a department store in return for help with its business. She has denied this. A former top official in the president's office, Chen Che-nan (no relation), was detained in April for allegedly accepting bribes. Another close aide, Ma Yung-cheng, resigned on June 1st. He too has been accused of corruption by opposition politicians.

Mr Chen tried to deflect criticism by announcing late last month that he would delegate more power to the prime minister, Su Tseng-chang, an ally and fellow member of the Democratic Progressive Party. But the president's job does not appear to be in jeopardy. Although the legislature has agreed, by 113 votes to 96, to launch recall proceedings, it is unlikely to build the consensus necessary to achieve this. Two-thirds of legislators need to approve a recall, which would then have to be endorsed by half of voters in a referendum with at least a 50% turnout. The opposition has only a slim majority in parliament. The vote is due on June 27th.

Officials in Beijing tend to endure no such ordeals. Right up until his detention by party investigators on June 9th, Liu Zhihua had been portrayed by official media as a staunch supporter of anti-corruption efforts. He is the most senior official in the capital to be accused of corruption since the arrest of a former city party chief, Chen Xitong, in the mid-1990s. Officials insist Mr Liu's case has nothing to do with Olympics projects. But as a local paper in far-off Anhui province bravely lamented, the more senior an accused official is, the less is revealed about his corruption.